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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24500518">Worth The Pain</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/larrrystlinson/pseuds/larrrystlinson'>larrrystlinson</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>One Direction (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Vampire, Angry Sex, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, BDSM, Blow Jobs, Bondage, Break Up, Car Sex, Cheating, Choking, Closeted Character, Cock Rings, Coming Out, Courting Rituals, Crying, Developing Relationship, Distrust, Domestic Fluff, Dominant Bottom, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Sex, Established Relationship, Explicit Sexual Content, F/F, Felching, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Friends to Lovers, Getting Back Together, Jealous Harry, Light Dom/sub, Lovers to Friends, M/M, Marriage, Marriage Proposal, Mating, Mating Bites, Mating Bond, Minor Character Death, Miscommunication, Oral Sex, Orgasm Delay/Denial, POV Third Person, Relationship Issues, Riding, Rimming, Rough Sex, Sex in a Car, Sexual Content, Smoking, Smut, Spanking, Unsafe Sex, Vampire Sex, Vampires, Wedding Fluff, Wedding Night, again kind of, kind of, sad sex, safe sex</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 05:48:02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>16,264</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24500518</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/larrrystlinson/pseuds/larrrystlinson</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis has waited 200 years for Harry to propose. He's too far in to just walk away now. Right?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan/Liam Payne</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>85</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Worth The Pain</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>1819</p><p>Green, glowing eyes shine out from the woods at the unsuspecting boy. A mere 19 years of age, he has no reason to believe he should be scared. The eyes start moving, following him as he walks home.</p><p>He’s smiling, skipping as he goes on his merry way. He’s dressed in rags, a worn, brown leather vest on top of his old white blouse. His pants are just as used, a pair of tight pants from years ago.</p><p>His parents are simple people, farmers. They let him out tonight so he could visit the local pub. He'd had to beg for months to get some free time. He’s about to be married off to one of the local girls, so his parents weren't sure they should say yes. But they agreed when he promised to work harder than ever the next month. She’s a young girl whose family offered the best dowry they could hope for.</p><p>He doesn’t love her. But love isn’t necessary for a marriage. Love has nothing to do with it. It has to do with money and fertility. And he'll surely learn to accept that someday.</p><p>He still doesn’t notice the shadow creeping up on him. The creature stalks up to him silently, taking advantage of the darkness to keep himself hidden. He smells captivating, a scent the creature has never smelled before. One that he’ll almost feel guilty about robbing the world of. Almost.</p><p>The thing taps his shoulder, moving away as the boy turns so he can’t see him. The boy spins around as soon as he feels the touch, not scared of it yet. He just assumes it’s one of his friends, but when he sees no one, a chill comes over him. He shudders, quickening his pace. The unknown visitor has seemingly disappeared, but only to move ahead of the scared human.</p><p>“Hello,” Harry greets from in front of him. There’s a wide grin on his face, revealing pearly white, menacing teeth.</p><p>Louis startles a little bit but regains composure. He settles himself, realizing he’s being a bit overdramatic with how scared he is. It’s just a man. A polite looking man who could be his age or younger.  And he was terrified because of a shadow. “Um, hi.”</p><p>“Would you like me to walk you home? It would be a shame for a beauty like you to get hurt on this walk.”</p><p>Louis stands still for a moment, unsure where to start in response. “Uh- I- Well- What?!”</p><p>“I said, I would like to walk you home, to keep you safe.”</p><p>He stomps his foot indignantly, furrowing his brows. “I can keep myself safe, thank you very much. I don’t need your help. I’m a man.”</p><p>“If you’re so sure, I won’t argue.”</p><p>And then the man is gone. Louis feels a chill consume him and forces himself to keep moving. It’s midsummer, so the cold must be in his mind. Despite the way it perseveres for much longer than something imagined would, he ignores it.</p><p>When another extreme burst hits him, he starts running. The chill spreads through him, sending tendrils of fear prickling through him.</p><p>When he gets home, he runs in, not bothering to be quiet despite the time of night. He’s panting, pushing himself against the door. He can’t figure out why, but his adrenaline’s running and he can’t calm down. Nothing necessarily scary happened. He ran into a strange man who left and then felt chilly. Nothing to freak out about.</p><p>With that thought in mind, he goes to bed. He’s out before his head hits the pillow, drifting off into a more pleasant wonderland in his mind. He leaves the man out of his mind, drifting off peacefully.</p><p>When he wakes up, that distant world could not be further from his current reality. He doesn’t know that when he first wakes up, though.</p><p>He starts his day like he always does, grabbing a few eggs so he can make his family breakfast.</p><p>He lights the fire and starts gathering everything he’ll need. As the temperature gets to the right point, he cracks the eggs one by one and adds them to the pot. They should be done within five minutes.</p><p>As they boil, he decides he should check on his family. They should be up at this point, but he can’t hear a sound from them. They must be asleep still, weird as that would be.</p><p>What he never expected to find were his parent’s dead bodies.</p><p>At first he thought they were just sleeping. But when he called out and they didn’t respond, he walked up to their bed and tapped their shoulders.</p><p>That’s when he finds his mother and father on their bed with bite marks in their necks and no color in their skin.</p><p>He screams and races to check on his sister, wanting, no, needing her to be alright.</p><p>“Lottie! Lottie!” He starts shaking her, the cold of her skin terrifying him. “Wake up, please, wake up!”</p><p>Tears are pouring down his face. He collapses to the ground, holding himself.</p><p>He’s the only one alive. He forces himself off of the ground, unable to remain in the same house as his dead family. So he races to the kitchen, towards the door. When he enters the front room, though, he finds the man from last night standing there. The man looks just as shocked to see Louis as Louis is to see him.</p><p>“What- Who- What?” Louis can’t get any words out, frozen in the fear that this thing is the reason his family will never get out of bed again.</p><p>“I leave for ten fucking minutes and you get up? How the hell are you alive?” Louis shivers at the words chosen, retracting himself from the bigger man.</p><p>“Who- What are you doing here?” Louis’ unable to move past the fact that this man is probably the reason his parents are dead. Which is… understandable to say the least.</p><p>The man recovers from the shock much easier, smirking as he picks at his teeth. Louis shudders at the idea that those could easily be the murder weapon. “I’m Harold. And you are?”</p><p>“I’m, uh, Louis. What happened to my-”</p><p>“I killed them. They were quite delicious. Not as good as you tasted, but close.”</p><p>“Why didn’t you kill me?”</p><p>“Believe me, I thought I had. But I guess I didn’t drink enough. Nothing to do about it now I guess.”</p><p>“What do you-”</p><p>“Come along. I’ll explain this to you as we go. I’m afraid we can’t stay here much longer. You’re likely to be put down in history as the killer of your family, so we should get out of the area before the local authorities can get here.”</p><p>“Wait, what?”</p><p>“You’re the only one to live, it’s not hard to assume who caused their deaths. Now, let’s go. Your transition’s going to start soon, so we should get to my place as quick as we can.”</p><p>Louis follows more easily than he should, finding himself drawn to this man in the most strange way. He wants to please him. He should be angry or scared, but instead he feels pliant under this man’s gaze.</p><p>PRESENT DAY</p><p>“Hello, sir.” Louis’ voice comes out in a purr, something he’s taken over a hundred years to perfect. “I couldn’t help but notice that you’re sitting here all alone. How would you feel about some company?”</p><p>The man in question smiles, waving his hand to tell Louis he’s welcome. The vampire slides onto the seat, subtly licking his more pointy teeth. They’re usually retractable, but when he’s this hungry they tend to come out on their own accord.</p><p>“I’m Peter,” Louis tells the man, saying it loudly so anyone paying attention would know. He always makes sure to add up the things that can make it impossible to pin the death of his prey on him.</p><p>“I’m Mark.”</p><p>“Would you buy me a drink, Mark?”</p><p>Mark smirks, nodding. “I’m gonna get something in return, right?”</p><p>“Of course, sir.” He slides a hand onto the man’s thigh and he smiles. “I’d like a whiskey on the rocks.”</p><p>The man orders and Louis accepts the drink with a smile. He does his best to seem unassuming and small. Normally, he hates his size, but on nights like these are when him being tiny comes in handy. No one ever expects him to be the reason they don’t wake up.</p><p>“How would you like to get out of here?” The man has a sinister smile and it makes Louis’ smile widen.</p><p>“Of course. Let’s go, sir.”</p><p>As they’re leaving the building, though, he comes across a familiar face. Harry fucking Styles.</p><p>He continues on with his meal, guiding the unsuspecting man to his death. But now he has someone trailing after him. He begrudgingly accepts that he might have to share this one. He’s never been able to tell Harry no before, anyway. Even though he’s the monster that made Louis into the same thing, Louis’ been infatuated with him since day 1.</p><p>When Louis gets to the alleyway, he hops onto his victim, straddling him midair. He catches him easily, allowing Louis to easily take advantage. Louis’ sure Harry’s going to show up soon, but it’s impossible to be sure when that’ll happen.</p><p>He’s proven right when, on the other side of the now dead body, Harry joins. He bites into the other side of the neck, drinking at the same time as Louis.</p><p>When the body is fully drained, they both pull back.</p><p>“Hello, darling. It’s been far too long since I’ve last seen you.”</p><p>“Oh, fuck off.”</p><p>“I could fuck in, but not off.”</p><p>Louis snorts but forces himself to hold back the smile that comes with it. “That’s the best you’ve got? That’s so lame.”</p><p>“Louis, watch your tone when you speak to me.”</p><p>“This isn’t the 1920s, Harold. You can’t control me like that anymore.”</p><p>“Oh, but I can. And it’s not Harold anymore, just Harry. You know that.”</p><p>“Ah, sorry.” Louis moves to stand in front of Harry and pulls him into a kiss using his collar. “I missed you, babe. I really wish you didn’t have to leave so often.”</p><p>“Lou, you know I have to visit the counsel every now and then.”</p><p>“But why can’t I go with you?”</p><p>“Because Lou. You’d be bored out of your mind and you’d have to stay at the hotel the entire time.”</p><p>“Well, it fucking sucks.”</p><p>“I know, hon. But it’s not as bad as it could be. My sister never gets to leave.”</p><p>“Yeah, I know. But that’s because she didn’t make the mistake of turning a human 200 years ago.” He’s grumbling, bringing something up that Harry had been sure they were done with.</p><p>“It is almost your 200 year anniversary, isn’t it? And it was the best mistake I’ve ever made. I love you, Lou. You know that.” He goes to kiss Louis but he dodges it.</p><p>“Do I, though? You haven’t even mated me yet.”</p><p>“How do you even know you want to be mated yet? You’re still young.”</p><p>“We’ve been together for nearly two hundred fucking years, Harry. What about that doesn’t scream ‘I’m committed!’?”</p><p>“I know you think that’s a long time, but I’m over a thousand years old. Two hundred years is barely a blink of an eye to me. Until I know that you really are ready for eternity with me, I don’t want to make it mandatory.” Louis knows what he means. Harry’s seen a lot of couples mate and then go through the painful ritual to undo it.</p><p>So Louis softens into Harry’s hold, relaxing his head against his chest. “I know, babe. But I’m never gonna leave you.”</p><p>“I know. But you of all people should understand why I feel this way.”</p><p>“I do.” Louis kisses his jaw. “Now come on, let’s get home. I want you to tie me up tonight.”</p><p>“Ooh…” They start walking, Louis pulling Harry by his hand. Harry stops them for a moment and picks up the body, knowing that it would be dumb of them to forget something so simple. “What else can I do to you?”</p><p>“How about you spank me for being a bad boy?”</p><p>“Hm… You might enjoy that too much. What if I use the wooden one with holes in it?” Louis shudders and nods, no longer smiling as lust takes him over. “I’ll spank you and then fuck you, hard. Maybe I’ll choke you a little bit.”</p><p>Louis lets out a small moan and moves them faster. Vampires can’t be killed, but they sure as hell can experience pain. And it’s common for them to love getting off using that pain. Knowing that nothing is too far is a huge turn on. Most don’t go very far with it, but it’s the thought that counts.. When you live forever, that little hint of what it’s like to be human is a welcome reminder.</p><p>They get in their car and Harry starts it after placing the body in the trunk. “You like the sound of that, huh? Do you want overstimulation or a cock ring until I’m done?”</p><p>“The ring tonight. Think you can put me in subspace tonight?”</p><p>“When don’t I put you there?”</p><p>Louis grins, leaning against the window. He isn’t buckled up since there’s no need, so it’s easy for him to sit however he wants. As Harry drives, he watches him, loving how focused his partner gets. Because of their heightened senses, he doesn’t need to focus too hard on the road. But he does anyway because that’s what he does.</p><p>“Why’re you staring at me, Lou?”</p><p>“‘Cause you’re hot. Can’t wait to get home… Want you to fuck me no prep tonight. I really wanna feel it.”</p><p>“You know that’ll take days to heal. I don’t want you hurting for too long, babe.”</p><p>“It’s my decision. I wanna rip a little so I can feel it for days. Besides, if you eat me out after, your spit will help it heal quicker.” He sags in his seat, palming himself lightly, thinking of all the things they’ve done so far and will do in the future.</p><p>“God, you’ll do anything to get rimmed, won’t you?”</p><p>Louis smiles. “Yeah. You already knew that, though.”</p><p>“It’s hard not to know everything about you.”</p><p>“Yeah. You’ve barely let me out of your sight for the past hundred years.”</p><p>Louis pulls out a cigarette and lights it up. Harry sends him a small glare but Louis ignores it. Louis’ always enjoyed smoking after a meal, but Harry has never liked the smell of nicotine.</p><p>Harry starts coughing a little and rolls the window down. Louis smirks and leans further back. He stares out the window for the rest of the drive, enjoying the way the leaves are turning golden.</p><p>-----</p><p>They enter the house already kissing. Harry’s carrying Louis while the smaller vampire attacks his lips.</p><p>Harry holds Louis in a tight grip, allowing the small one to nip at his neck while he gathers the equipment he’ll use for tonight. It's all effortless, as though Louis weighs nothing. He doesn't even give the harsh love bites a response.</p><p>He starts tying Louis up once he gets him spread out on the bed. He’s face down on the bed and he’s fully hard. He slips the cock ring onto Louis and then walks off for a minute.</p><p>He rolls a condom on and lubes himself up. Knowing that Louis wants it, he crawls on top of him and shoves in, no prep. It takes a few shoves to finally work himself inside the smaller vampire, but he succeeds after the third try.</p><p>Louis’ crying underneath him, but he knows that he’s okay. He would color out if he wasn’t. Even still, he kisses at the tears on his cheeks and cups his face gently. Once he’s gotten Louis to relax enough, he starts pounding into him. Hard and rough, exactly how they both love it.</p><p>He can smell the blood from Louis and the scent drives him batty. It makes him get faster and more powerful with his thrusts, past the speed that any human could achieve.</p><p>One of his hands remains next to Louis’ head while the other circles his neck. He’s not gripping it yet, just teasing at what’s to come. He continues kissing at Louis’ face as he destroys him. Finally, he tightens his grip on Louis’ neck.</p><p>The smaller boy’s eyes are glazed over and black as he loses his ability to breathe. It’s not a necessity for him, but it’s a noticeable effect. He’s dizzy from the loss of control he’s experiencing. It’s less about the physical effect and more about the dynamic it creates.</p><p>Harry starts getting closer to his high while Louis is crying underneath him, his inability to get off becoming painful. He releases his hold on his neck, deciding to be a little bit merciful.</p><p>The complete control Harry has is emphasized even more by the way that his body completely covers Louis’. If someone were to enter the room, it might take them a minute to realize that he’s there at all. Besides the extremely loud moans and whines that are leaving his mouth, he’s hidden.</p><p>Louis’ crying harder as his cock throbs. The shaft is red while the mushroom head is nearly purple. Pre-cum is pouring out at this point and the tip completely passes the foreskin at this point.</p><p>Harry realizes how close he is and makes a last-minute decision. He pulls out and pulls the condom off, pressing back in quickly. They’re both clean, it’s just messier to cum inside Louis. But he’s willing to clean that up if it means he gets to do what he wants.</p><p>As he cums inside of Louis, he presses his hips in hard, grinding in circles as his orgasm overcomes him. He wraps his arms around Louis, holding him as tightly as he can.</p><p>“You’re so incredible.”</p><p>“Need- need to cum… Harry, let me cum!”</p><p>“Not yet, babe. I’ve got more to do to you.”</p><p>He kisses Louis, licking into his mouth. When he pulls back, he starts crawling down his body. Louis’ straining against his bonds, wanting to get a hand on himself so bad. When Harry puts his mouth on his hole, he lets out a moan mixed with a sigh.</p><p>“Oh, fuck!”</p><p>Harry sucks on his gaping hole for a moment. But that doesn’t feel even close to as good as when he starts thrusting his tongue in and out. Louis writhes beneath him, sobbing and begging for release. Harry ignores him, licking up all of the cum and blood that’s accessible. He presses against his prostate with one finger, taunting Louis with what he can’t have yet.</p><p>Then he gets some of his cum in his mouth before moving back up to kiss Louis. He lets the cum drip into his partner’s mouth for a moment. When he pulls back, Louis’ sobbing for his release.</p><p>“Harry, please, please, please let me cum!”</p><p>Harry doesn’t respond, continuing his abuse on the poor boy’s prostate. Louis’ pleading with him still, nearly screaming at how good he feels.</p><p>Finally, Harry removes the cock ring. Before he can even fully get his mouth on the tiny cock, he’s cumming. Harry swallows it all, licking around the cock head.</p><p>“Such a good boy,” Harry tells Louis as he starts to clean them up.</p><p>Louis lies there, unresponsive besides a small sigh. He curls into himself as soon as he’s let down from his bonds.</p><p>Harry finishes wiping him down and lays down next to him. He pulls him into his chest, petting his hair gently. Louis preens at the attention, rolling on top of Harry. He lies flat against the bed so he’s more comfortable for Louis.</p><p>Louis curls into a ball on his chest, holding him tightly. He has tears in his eyes as he starts drifting off.</p><p>“I love you…” Harry whispers into his ear, bringing the boy back, just enough to respond.</p><p>“Then why won’t you mate me?”</p><p>“Lou… We’ve already discussed this.”</p><p>“I know,” Louis sighs, relaxing his body completely and falling into the closest thing to sleep a vampire can get. It’s more like a state of meditation than human sleep. Where the world is shut out, a good opportunity to rejuvenate yourself.</p><p>-----</p><p>Louis leaves early the next morning so he can go drop the body off. He and Harry have an agreement with a few of the werewolves in the town pack. They drop the bodies off there, the werewolves dispose of all evidence. The werewolves don’t ask where the bodies came from, the vampires don’t ask where they go. It’s a symbiotic relationship.</p><p>Louis’ pretty sure they just burn the bodies or something like that. But he’d rather stay in the dark than find out something disturbing.</p><p>“Ni, do you think there’s something wrong with me?” Louis asks as he gives his friend the body.</p><p>“No. Why? Is Harry making you feel insecure? I will rip his throat out if he is.”</p><p>Louis giggles, his shoulders slumping. “First of all, you couldn’t do that even if you wanted to. Secondly, he didn’t do anything on purpose. I just- Nothing. We’re having some personal problems and I shouldn’t have even brought it up.”</p><p>“Louis…” There’s something in his voice that makes Louis duck his head down.</p><p>“Leave it, Niall. I don’t wanna talk about it.”</p><p>“Fine. But if it comes up again, I’m not letting it go.”</p><p>He nods, handing over the limp man. Niall and another werewolf carry the body away, so Louis leaves.</p><p>-----</p><p>A week later, there’s an air of distance between Harry and Louis. They go through their lives like usual, but something’s off. Harry doesn’t seem to notice but it’s all Louis can think about.</p><p>When he finishes work, Harry’s busying himself with cleaning the house. He seems more high strung than usual, but Louis ignores it. Normally, he’d offer to help, but right now he just feels tired.</p><p>He decides to call Niall. He needs to talk to someone about how he feels. So he goes to the room he shares with Harry and locks the door. He folds himself up on the bed and dialls Niall’s number. He picks up on the third ring.</p><p>“Hello?”</p><p>“I think he’s gonna leave me.”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“He’s been so distant all week. We’ve only had sex twice, and it was vanilla!”</p><p>“Louis… Take a deep breath. I think you’re overthinking everything. Why don’t you start from the beginning?”</p><p>“I- Well, I think he’s having commitment issues.”</p><p>“Okay?”</p><p>“And I think he’s gonna leave me. Or what if he tells me to leave?”</p><p>“Y’know, I want to listen. But I also really don’t. I know I said I’d force you to open up, but I just don’t feel like it. Please, if you think you can organize your thoughts enough to make sense, call back.”</p><p>“Wait!” Silence. But Louis knows Niall’s listening, so he continues. “Do you have any advice?”</p><p>Niall sighs. “I don’t know. Break up with him if he gives you this much anxiety all the time?”</p><p>“I’m not gonna leave him. I love him.”</p><p>Niall sighs again, not even bothering to say goodbye before hanging up. Louis groans out, falling to the bed. He flops around, wanting to get up but not wanting to face Harry quite yet.</p><p>He does get up when he hears that Harry’s done cleaning. He unlocks the door and exits the room, walking past Harry who’s about to enter the room. He spins, grabbing Louis’ wrist.</p><p>“Lou. We need to talk.”</p><p>“About what?” His voice comes out squeaky.</p><p>“What did I do to make you act like this?” His voice is thick, as though he’s on the verge of tears.</p><p>“I-” He pauses, thinking about how he can phrase this. “I really want you to mate me.”</p><p>Harry pulls him into a tight hug. “I know you do. But I won’t do that yet. You need to be patient with me.”</p><p>Louis hugs back, tightly, sticking his nose in his neck. “I love you so much, Haz. So fucking much.”</p><p>He rubs his back, trying to soothe his partner as well as he can. “I know. And I love you, too. And someday we will mate. It’s just gonna have to wait a little while.”</p><p>“Okay.” Harry carries Louis to their bed, lying down with him on his chest. “What did you wanna talk about? Was that it?”</p><p>“We can talk about it later. Just relax for now.”</p><p>-----</p><p>Harry got a letter from the counsel. They want him to go in for a longer time than usual, a full year. He’ll have until the beginning of January to say goodbye to Louis. The hardest part for him is the whole telling Louis that he has to leave.</p><p>He’s gonna ask him to come with him, of course. It’s not 100% set in stone how long he’ll be there so he really wants to be able to see Louis no matter what.</p><p>The thing is, Harry didn’t have to accept this. He could’ve told them no to the year. He could go for twelve months with month-long breaks between each or something like that. But he kind of likes the idea of taking Louis somewhere new for a while.</p><p>“Lou?” It’s been a month since the last time he tried bringing this up. He only has a month left before he’s leaving and he needs to tell Louis soon. Louis hums to him, so he continues. “I really need to talk to you about something.”</p><p>“What is it?” He’s lying down, not really focused on anything, especially not Harry.</p><p>“I need you to pay attention, babe. This is actually important.”</p><p>Louis grumbles, sitting up. “Okay, I’m listening.”</p><p>He’s not though, and it’s obvious from his body language. He’s not even looking at Harry and he’s slumped over, playing with the bedding. “Louis, please pay attention to me!”</p><p>Louis snaps his head up, glaring at him. “Fuck off, Harry! What could be so important that you can’t just let me relax?”</p><p>“God, Louis! How can you be so self-important to think that I can’t possibly have anything to say that would be worth your time?”</p><p>“Why should I even give you anymore of my time? Huh? You’re not gonna mate me, so it’s becoming quite obvious that you don’t want my time.”</p><p>Harry stands up, starting to walk away. Before he gets to the door, though, he spins around. Louis’ still on the bed, glaring at him. “You told me you didn’t mind waiting. Why is it that, all of a sudden, someday isn’t good enough for you? I thought you understood that I’m scared of losing you more than anything else. To live forever with a mark on me that says ‘Louis left you’ would be so much worse than you leaving me and not having that reminder forever.”</p><p>“I’m not gonna leave you unless you keep forcing me out like this!”</p><p>“I-” He can’t forge a response, feeling overwhelmed. “I’m not trying to force you out. I want you to be mine, so bad. But I-” His voice cracks. “I need you to wait for me. Please.”</p><p>“I don’t think I can wait for very much longer.”</p><p>-----</p><p>They really need to learn how to communicate better. Harry’s absolutely certain of that. Louis hasn’t spoken to him for nearly a week. His birthday’s less than a week away and he refuses to speak to him.</p><p>He’s not any better, though. He hasn’t tried getting Louis to talk to me, but that’s mostly because of the argument that ensued last time.</p><p>They haven’t even hunted together. They’ve both hunted separately, going into the woods and eating deer rather than killing humans. Neither of them wants to go out together but they can’t do it without the other.</p><p>Louis’ been staying with Niall and the rest of the werewolves lately. Harry’s just about losing his mind. He knows that Louis’ upset, but he didn’t think it was this bad.</p><p>He decides he should just start packing now. He’ll leave a little early, get some time with his sister while he’s gone. He also decides to leave Louis a note for when he gets home. He might be upset, but Harry’s upset too and doesn’t deserve this treatment. He needs some space.</p><p>-----</p><p>Louis gets home with a smile on his face, ready to talk to Harry. Niall really helped settle his feelings. He feels excited to patch things up with Harry, to tell him that everything will be alright.</p><p>But everything won’t be alright. That becomes instantly clear when he finds the letter.</p><p>“Dear Louis,” it reads. “I love you so much and I hope you know that. I’ve been called into the council for about a year and I accepted. Please don’t be too upset, I’ll be back before you know it. Unless you don’t want me back. Then I won’t come back. I would love for you to come and join me. If you want that, call me and I’ll get you a plane ticket. I understand if you don’t want that. I want this to work, but lately, it feels like you don’t want that.”</p><p>He can’t continue on reading so he drops the letter. He’s so angry and sad and hurt all at once. He just wants Harry to be here and hold him but he also wants to never see that asshole’s face again.</p><p>He left him right before his birthday. Right before Christmas and New Year's and all of that. Left him to suffer through the joy everyone else will get to experience.</p><p>So he calls him in order to tell him off. Harry answers on the fifth ring, not speaking but waiting for Louis. “You’re leaving me? You’re seriously leaving me for a full year?”</p><p>“I’m sorry.” He means it and it’s obvious. But Louis’ fired up and wants to be angry.</p><p>“No, you’re not. Or you wouldn’t have done this at all. And just so you know, I don’t want to go with you.”</p><p>“Why bother calling then?”</p><p>“To tell you that I love you too. And I can’t wait to see you at the end of the year.” His voice is close to a whisper and he hangs right up afterward.</p><p>-----</p><p>Around a hundred years ago, something similar happened. Nothing this extreme or long, but still a break nonetheless.</p><p>Up until that point, they weren’t actually dating. Just fucking and killing people together. Louis wanted more, though, and told him that.</p><p>It devolved into a full-on argument and ended in Harry leaving. Louis cried the entire night, just as he’s doing right now. He was (and still is) in love with Harry. The man who turned him and took him in.</p><p>He had thought Harry reciprocated. But Harry told him he didn’t feel the same. He had left, leaving him for the night.</p><p>It turns out that he was more scared of commitment than anything else. When he came back from his angry walk, he pulled Louis into a kiss and told him he wanted to try dating.</p><p>Louis wants nothing more than for that to happen again right now. But he’s the one that caused it this time. And he’s the one who needs to apologize. But he won’t. Because he’s a stubborn asshole.</p><p>So he cries. Lets it all out. He’s devoted his eternal life to this man, but something this simple breaks them. If it’s that easy to end, was it ever going to last? If something so small breaks the camel’s back, then obviously the camel was gonna tire out no matter what. It doesn’t matter what metaphorical straw was added, it was gonna break it’s back. No matter what.</p><p>As he cries, he feels a loathable amount of self-pity consume him. Why didn’t he try to get the camel to a doctor? Why did he just let it die right in front of him?</p><p>He cries for a straight week. He doesn’t feed or go to work or anything. Just cries until he’s out of tears and then shakes uncontrollably until he has tears again.</p><p>-----</p><p>Niall shows up at the end of the week. When Louis didn’t drop off a body that week, he got worried. So he’s checking in on his friend.</p><p>“Lou?” He had to break into the house since the door had been locked. “Oh, Lou, what happened?”</p><p>Louis chokes out a sob, curling even further into himself. “Harry left.”</p><p>“What- Why would you do that?”</p><p>“He has to go back to the counsel for a year. And he wanted me to go with him.”</p><p>“Why did that cause you to break up?”</p><p>“Be-because… He doesn’t want to mate me and I want him to mate me.”</p><p>“So you left him?” Niall starts sounding angrier, so Louis gets defensive.</p><p>“Fuck off, okay! I feel so lonely right now and you’re making it worse.”</p><p>“Come on, get up. You’ve gotta feed soon or you’re gonna die.”</p><p>-----</p><p>When Christmas passes and Harry doesn’t call, Louis spends the entire night holding in his tears. Well, not the entire night, but the entire time that Niall’s over. He didn’t spend a whole lot of time there, just saying a late happy birthday and a merry Christmas.</p><p>After that, Louis bundles himself up in the blanket on their bed. He shoves his nose into Harry’s pillow. It smells like a mix of his aftershave and his shampoo.</p><p>Louis holds the pillow in his clutch, curling up around it. He starts crying himself to sleep as he envisions his past Christmas’ with Harry.</p><p>He remembers one specific thing, before they had started dating.</p><p>It was cold and snowy out, so they spent the entire day inside, hanging out together and truly getting to know each other.</p><p>That’s the day that Louis first fell in love.</p><p>Louis laid on the bed for the first half of the day, wishing the sun would get duller or go away completely. Harry busied himself around the house, cleaning the same room three times before he finally decided to talk to Louis.</p><p>He knocked on the door, four times. Then he opened it, not waiting for Louis to answer.</p><p>Louis had looked up, his eyes not fully open. He wasn’t really awake after laying down the whole morning.</p><p>“Would you like to come out and decorate the tree with me?” he had asked, shifting from foot to foot and clasping his hands tightly.</p><p>Louis sat all the way up and smiled, joining him.</p><p>They spent the day smiling, laughing, and enjoying each other’s company.</p><p>Louis longs to return those days. They used to be so happy together. Yeah, they argued and had disagreements. But they stuck through it and loved each other unconditionally.</p><p>Louis has only felt so alone once before.</p><p>When Harry first took him in, right after killing his family, he felt this alone. More alone, actually. After finding his family’s dead bodies, he shut down.</p><p>His transition to being a vampire was painful enough to distract him for a few days. Three weeks went by before he had to face the pain.</p><p>He was shattered, heartbroken. Harry was no help either, acting like he was disgusting. They didn’t get along at first, understandably so. Louis hated his guts until he found out that he was the only one Harry drank from.</p><p>Harry’s friends at the time, two other vampires by the names of Reya and Marcus, drank from his family. Harry had been the only one to stick around, sensing something off even before he knew Louis had survived.</p><p>He actually brought Louis to meet those friends years later. Louis attempted to kill them, but for multiple reasons failed.</p><p>That was the first time he and Harry had sex. He broke down and Harry comforted him. He kissed Harry on a whim and it went from there.</p><p>They haven’t seen those monsters since, thankfully. Harry developed a hatred for them as he slowly fell for Louis and Louis already hated them. It didn’t take much thought to cut them out.</p><p>Harry was always so good to Louis. And he’s never cherished that enough, he thinks to himself as he holds himself. He rocks himself to almost sleep and blocks the world out.</p><p>-----</p><p>One month into the year and he’s spoken to no one other than Niall.</p><p>“You know, I’ve got this friend who might be helpful for you,” Niall tells him, sitting on the edge of his bed. Louis’ wrapped in a blanket, the only one in the house that smells exactly like Harry. “And I’d really like to introduce you to them if you’d let me.”</p><p>“No thanks, I’m fine.” His voice is hardly more than a murmur, his face shoved under the comforter.</p><p>“Lou, buddy. You can’t live like this.”</p><p>“I can’t live at all.”</p><p>“Louis-”</p><p>“Niall. He took away my ability to die. Made me reliant on drinking blood to survive. And then he left.” He sits up, looking at Niall with a fire in his eyes.</p><p>“What happened?”</p><p>“What do you mean?”</p><p>“You haven’t actually gone into any detail. You told me that you wanted more than he was willing to give, basically.”</p><p>“I- Yeah, that’s pretty much it. He left for the year for work, so he’ll be back. It just feels so final. He didn’t even call to say happy birthday or Merry Christmas! What if he’s changed his mind and now he doesn’t want me at all. It’s bad enough that he won’t settle down with me, but now he won’t even give me that impression.”</p><p>“Why won’t he settle down?”</p><p>“He’s scared we’d end up like his parents. But it doesn’t matter, we’ll be back together at the end of the year. It’s not like we broke up. I just- I feel so upset with myself for letting it get to this.”</p><p>“That’s understandable. But did you even talk it out at all with him? Or just blow up and break up?”</p><p>“Um… I just blew up on him. Multiple times. When he tried to talk it out.” Louis goes quiet.</p><p>-----</p><p>Two months after Niall visits, he starts working a normal schedule again. He’s an editor for a local magazine that publishes short stories from the community. They have one publication a month, so work is pretty easy. It’s a very artsy place and they don’t make him come into work, so it works out for him.</p><p>Niall hasn’t been coming over as much, but he’s continued to bug Louis about meeting his friend. He’s some type of therapist. Louis doesn’t think he needs therapy or anything like that. He’s just dealing with a lot of emotions, that doesn’t mean he needs to talk to anyone.</p><p>“I’m not giving you a choice anymore.” Speak of the devil. Niall has let himself in and brought someone else with him.</p><p>With one whiff of the air, Louis knows this man is a werewolf. He even looks like he would be one. Tall, at least to Louis, muscular, and has the face of a puppy.</p><p>“This is Liam. He’s the pack- Well, I’ll be honest. I’m not sure what the English version of the word is. I’ve only heard it said while we’re wolves, and I doubt you’d understand howls and barks. It’s similar to a therapist, but with a deeper connection to the way people around him feel.”</p><p>Louis nods, not knowing what to say while not being rude. Normally, he’d make a snide comment to Niall. Niall wouldn’t find it rude because he’s used to it, but who knows how this new guy would react.</p><p>“Hi, it’s nice to meet you.” The man, Liam, reaches his hand out for Louis to shake. Louis accepts, staring at the ground once his hand’s been dropped.</p><p>“Nice to meet you, too.”</p><p>“Um, Lucas, right?”</p><p>Louis blushes. He didn’t even introduce himself. “Uh, no, it’s Louis, actually.”</p><p>“Well, Louis, I’m here to talk to anytime you need. But it’s also not necessary for you to open up at all. I just want to be your friend.”</p><p>Louis sighs. “Thanks.”</p><p>For the rest of the night, they get to know each other. After an hour of sitting around, they decide to put a show on. Liam and Niall have to eat soon, so they order that.</p><p>“Do you need one of your blood packs, Lou? I can grab it for you if you want one,” Niall asks.</p><p>“Sure. I ate yesterday, but I guess I could drink again tonight.”</p><p>Liam is on the phone ordering a pizza while Niall gets Louis a package of blood. He’s been bringing them for Louis ever since Harry left. Louis hasn’t felt up to going out or hunting in the woods and Niall likes taking care of him. He gets the blood from the werewolves' version of a blood bank.</p><p>Niall hands him the blood and he dives in. Liam enters the room at the same time. He looks intrigued by the way Louis drinks. It’s likely that he’s never seen a vampire drink before, so it makes sense the way that he can’t stop staring.</p><p>Louis pulls back and smiles, his pointy fangs on display. Liam’s jaw drops and he looks away. Then Louis dives into the drink again.</p><p>-----</p><p>On month four, he finally lets Liam into his life. They start hanging out once or twice a week, usually with Niall joining in. Louis’ pretty sure that the two like each other, but he’s grateful they don’t rub it in his face.</p><p>“Lou, do you wanna play Scrabble or Battleship? I brought both.” Liam asks.</p><p>“I was thinking Scrabble so we can all play! With Battleship, we’ll have to take turns,” Niall says. Liam blushes a little, nodding.</p><p>Louis’ barely smiled since Harry left. The few times he has smiled have all been with these two. “I’m fine with either. I’ll sit and watch if you two wanna play Battleship.”</p><p>His voice is croaky. He hasn’t spoken since the last time they came over, which was last Wednesday. And even then, he didn’t speak a lot. He doesn’t really have a need to speak lately.</p><p>“Okay.” Liam breaks the silence, setting up Battleship. It’s obvious that Niall wants to argue more for Scrabble, but he bites his tongue.</p><p>Louis bundles up on the couch, folding his legs under himself and his arms over his chest. He’s got one of Harry’s hoodies on, one that he stole a decade or so ago. It’s huge on him and covers his hands.</p><p>He watches as his friends argue jokingly, smiling lazily. He feels okay for the moment.</p><p>He decides he should get some work done while the two play. He pulls out his computer and starts editing a new manuscript. He pulls no punches as he rips through the writing. It’s not the worst he’s seen, but it’s nowhere near the best.</p><p>The short story is a romance, between a young woman and a man with commitment issues. Louis easily slides into the shoes of the woman, very used to dealing with a man who can’t seem to settle down. As he continues to read, though, he finds that this boy has no redeeming qualities.</p><p>He’s whiny, mean, and inconsiderate. Nothing like Harry. No one should want to settle down with this love interest. But Harry’s everyone’s dream. He’s kind and he cares. Yeah, he’s a killer, but he’s only bad if you’re a human. And Louis isn’t anymore.</p><p>Liam notices that Louis’ working rather than relaxing and stands up. Niall goes silent, too, but Louis isn’t paying attention.</p><p>Liam rests a hand on his arm, finally getting his attention. “Hey, Lou. Why don’t we put on a movie instead of you working?”</p><p>“What? No, it’s fine. I’ve gotta get this done anyway.”</p><p>“Lou…”</p><p>“I’m really fine.”</p><p>They give up, going back to their game. There’s no cheering or bickering like before. Neither of them is very good at dealing with Louis in these times. They’re not sure if they should be quiet and considerate or enjoy themselves like usual and hope he joins in. Either way, they end up feeling like jerks.</p><p>-----</p><p>Around 6 months later, Liam starts staying over Louis’ house more and more often. He even sleeps over a few nights a week.</p><p>“You’re not gonna fall in love with me, are you?” Louis jokes, laughing a little. It all sounds halfhearted, but Liam’s happy that he’s even trying to joke at all.</p><p>“No. Actually, since it’s just us, can we talk about something that has to do with that?”</p><p>“Um… Sure.”</p><p>“How did you know you wanted to be with Harry?”</p><p>Louis freezes at the name. He takes a long pause before finally responding. “He was the one to turn me.”</p><p>“Yeah, but how did you know you wanted to be more than friends?”</p><p>“Well… We were friends for a while. Maybe 20 or 30 years? It felt like forever to me at that point. I was already so in love with him. But he didn’t really notice me in that way, it seemed. He was always out with other people, hooking up and feeding. I went out and ate only when I had to. Sometimes, he and I would screw around, but it was never more than that.</p><p>“Around my 80th birthday, I finally put my foot down. I told him how I felt. He didn’t quite feel the same. Told me I was way too young for him. So I proved to him that I wasn’t as innocent as he thought.</p><p>“It took us about a decade to really end up dating. And ever since then, we’ve been inseparable.” He’s tearing up, so he wipes his eyes with the back of his hand. “Or we had been, up until now.”</p><p>He romanticised the beginning of the relationship. But that’s mostly because no one wants to hear about exactly how appalled Harry was at the thought of being with Louis. It really hurt him.</p><p>He’s currently 218, approaching his 200th year as a vampire. Harry’s 1,034. So the age difference is undeniably there. But Louis’ body is older than Harry’s. He was 19 when he was turned while Harry was 17. At this point, Louis feels like Harry should stop babying him.</p><p>“Why did you wanna know?”</p><p>“I want to ask Niall out. I’m not sure he’d say yes. I’m quite a bit older than him.”</p><p>“How old are you?”</p><p>“I’ll be 46 in August. Niall’s pushing 30.”</p><p>Werewolves generally live a pretty long time. They’re not immortal like vampires, but aging doesn’t affect them like it would a normal human. Because of that, age gaps aren’t a huge issue. If someone’s under the age of thirty or so, then it might be considered taboo. But once you both have a solid amount of life experience, no one really cares if you want to be together.</p><p>“I’m sure he’d accept. He seems to like you too.”</p><p>“You really think so?”</p><p>Louis nods and Liam cheers, hugging him tightly before excusing himself.</p><p>-----</p><p>Louis starts wondering why Harry hasn’t even attempted to reach out when the twelve-month marker starts approaching. They’re so close to a full year of no contact. He knows that some of the blame falls on him, but he can’t help but feel a little angry.</p><p>When he realizes his birthday is soon, he feels even more depressed than ever. He doubts Harry will reach out to say anything, but he wants him to so badly.</p><p>Even he had reached out to send a happy birthday text! Yeah, he was drunk and didn’t get a response, but the thought is still there. Harry didn’t even open the text.</p><p>“Liam?”</p><p>“Yeah, Lou?”</p><p>“Could you plan to stay the night the evening before Christmas Eve? Christmas Eve is my birthday and I’m kind of dreading it.”</p><p>Liam softens, pulling the curled up boy into a tight hug. “Of course. Why didn’t you tell me your birthday is soon? I would’ve gotten you a gift.”</p><p>Louis giggles. “It’s fine. I’ve had 218 of these. I think I’m past the point of getting gifts. I didn't get gifts for the first 18 of them and I survived!”</p><p>“I still think I should get you something. It feels wrong not to.”</p><p>“It’s fine Liam. I’d honestly rather not even celebrate. It’s not even my death day, it’s the day I was born. Harry and I only celebrated it because it’s a good way to ground ourselves and not completely lose our humanity.”</p><p>“So now you want to lose your humanity?” Liam laughs.</p><p>Louis rolls his eyes. “I’ve got you and Niall to keep me grounded.”</p><p>“I still think we should celebrate. Your ‘death day,’ as you call it, isn’t as important as your birthday.”</p><p>“If you insist. But I can’t promise I’ll enjoy it.”</p><p>Liam ends up spending the night, spooning Louis. He needs to sleep and Louis likes the warmth. Louis lets himself drift off into his thoughts, stuck on how much he misses Harry. It’ll be a year this Friday. And that realization hurts so much.</p><p>He wishes it were Harry holding him. That he had never left, or came back early.</p><p>-----</p><p>When Harry enters the house, he smells a strange scent. At first, he doesn’t think twice about it, thinking it must be a body Louis brought home. But then he realizes it’s a werewolf, and a live one at that. When he enters their bedroom to find Louis cuddling with this other man, he feels a sense of rage consume him.</p><p>Louis smells Harry as soon as he enters the bedroom. He shoots up, instantly on high alert.</p><p>“Harry?”</p><p>Liam grumbles next to him, rolling over. Harry growls at the man, snarling like a wolf himself.</p><p>Louis’ crying, though, something Harry hasn’t noticed in his rage mode. His thoughts are racing and he can’t figure out what to make of this situation. Is Harry really here? Is he becoming delusional?</p><p>“Harry, what- are you really here?” He stands up, walking over to Harry. He cups his face and Harry softens into the hand. That’s when the tears really start falling. He’s here. He’s real. Louis pulls him into a tight hug, clinging to him tightly. “Harry, I missed you so much! I love you so much and I’m so sorry I didn’t go with you!”</p><p>Harry holds him, too, but less tightly. He’s out of it from seeing Liam, unable to fully recover quite yet. “Hey, Lou.”</p><p>Louis pulls back, hurt by the lackluster greeting. “I should wake Liam up. He’ll probably want to meet you.”</p><p>“Who is Liam?”</p><p>“A friend.” He’s feeling bitter now, already sick of Harry’s bullshit again. “He’s taken care of me the entire time since you left with no warning. Can you get out of the room, please? I need to talk to Liam.”</p><p>“This is my room, too. And you don’t get to kick me out so you can chat with the man you’ve been whoring around with!”</p><p>Liam’s up now, inching away from the angry vampires. He might not be human, but they can still very easily kill him. He gets out of the room and leaves the house unnoticed.</p><p>Louis’ eyes are nearly popping out of his head and his nostrils are flaring. “Fuck you!”</p><p>Louis tackles Harry and starts kissing him. It’s as if no time has passed when they touch. They move together, lips sliding together and tongues twisting in a dance. Louis grinds down on him, up and down and in figure eights. It’s aggressive but pleasurable.</p><p>“Tonight’s my turn to be in charge. You don’t get to call me a whore and expect to get away with it.”</p><p>Harry’s eyes dilate in pleasure, consumed in lust. When Louis forces him to his feet and pulls him by his collar to the bed, he follows. Louis throws him to the bed and pounces on him before he can move.</p><p>Louis rips all of their clothing off with minimal effort and throws it off to the side. He then grabs Harry’s hand and starts lubing the digits up.</p><p>He pulls the hand underneath him and slides a finger in. He hisses at the feeling, not having touched himself this way for a year. The first finger goes in easily enough, moving in and out with a slick pop and slide sound.</p><p>Harry adds a second finger with some pushing and Louis continues to ride his fingers. When the third finger gets added, it’s an obvious stretch. Louis thrusts his hips down and presses the fingers into his prostate.</p><p>Harry’s watching him use his fingers and feels consumed by lust. He stares up with a moan caught in his throat as Louis starts jacking himself off.</p><p>As Louis gets off for the first time tonight, Harry’s having a cock ring placed on him. He whines at his lack of control in the situation.</p><p>Louis pulls the hand out slowly, a slick pop filling the room. He straddles Harry’s waist and lines the cock up with his hole.</p><p>When he slides down, he lets out a soft moan. He missed this. And his first time back with it is filled with anger. He feels a tear slide down his face, but it’s impossible to pinpoint why it’s there.</p><p>He drops his hips up and down and swivels around a bit. He drops his head down to be level with Harry’s, kissing his lips and licking at his neck. There’s sorrow in his movements, but the lust they share for each other overrules any other emotion they’re feeling.</p><p>“I love you, Harry…” His movements are no longer fast and hard but slow and sensual. He feels so connected to Harry in this moment.</p><p>Harry, on the other hand, is crying. Louis doesn’t know what for, but he assumes it’s because of the cock ring. At the thought of it, he pulls off. He takes the ring off of him and then gets back on, wrapping his arms around Harry’s shoulders.</p><p>He’s still crying though, and now his partner is, too. They cry into each other as they cum together, releasing instantaneously. They hold each other close, tight grips on each other as Harry slides out of him.</p><p>He’s no longer crying from pleasure. It’s like he’s really accepted what just happened. This feels less like a welcome home and more like a goodbye.</p><p>Harry stares past Louis, up at the ceiling. He’s stopped crying but now he’s frozen. Louis’ too caught up in his feelings at first, but when he notices, he gets concerned.</p><p>“Why do you seem so sad?”</p><p>“I- I feel so bad. I thought- I thought we had broken up. I thought we were done.”</p><p>“We didn’t break up. And I didn’t sleep with anyone, if you still think that! I’ve never been with anyone other than you and that’s not gonna change. I don’t want it to change.” As he snuggles into Harry’s neck, Harry stares out, shame and guilt devouring him even more. “I’m so sorry that I caused this divide between us. I can wait for you to mate me if that’s what you need.”</p><p>“I-” Louis hums. “I cheated. Kind of. I thought we had broken up!”</p><p>“What?” He’s frozen, struggling to accept what he just said.</p><p>“I thought we were over, so I slept with someone else. She was just a random hookup and I killed her afterwards. She meant nothing!”</p><p>“Oh my god.”</p><p>“I’m so sorry.”</p><p>“Get out of the bed. Now. Please, go somewhere else.”</p><p>Harry listens, reluctantly leaving and going to the couch for the night.</p><p>-----</p><p>The next morning, Louis gets up and goes to the living room, not expecting to find Harry still there. When he finds the big oaf lying on the couch, though, he’s not shocked. Where else would he have gone?</p><p>Harry sits up when Louis enters the room, staring at the stunning creature.</p><p>“I can’t decide whether to be angry at you or angry at myself.” Harry doesn’t respond, too happy Louis’ talking to him to care what he’s talking about. “You cheated on me. I thought it was pretty clear that we were still together. But it’s my fault for putting us in a spot that made it possible for you to think we weren’t, isn’t it?”</p><p>“No, no, it’s not. I just- I thought we were on a break. It was dumb of me.”</p><p>He nods, not looking at Harry but at the ground. “It was.”</p><p>“How can I get you to forgive me?”</p><p>“I don’t know.” He swallows, finally looking up at Harry. There are tears in his eyes but he’s holding back any other sign of weakness he can. “I guess only time will tell.”</p><p>Harry nods.</p><p>“The werewolves are throwing me a party tonight. An early birthday party of sorts, since mine falls on Christmas Eve and they have other things to do.” He gives Harry a moment to take everything he said in before continuing. “If you’d like to come with, you’re welcome to.”</p><p>Harry nods and takes a step towards Louis. When he doesn’t back away, he pulls him into a hug. “I’m so sorry… I feel terrible for what I did…”</p><p>Louis doesn’t hug back but he doesn’t pull away. He just lets the hug happen.</p><p>Harry holds him tightly, a few tears falling onto Louis’ shoulder. He finally caves into the kiss, patting his back lightly. “I’m so sorry, Lou… I love you so much.”</p><p>He rubs circles on Harry’s back and closes his eyes. “I know, love. I love you, too.”</p><p>“Please don’t be angry anymore. I don’t like this.”</p><p>-----</p><p>“Hey, Lou! Good of you to finally show up to your own party!” Niall calls when the two get in. “And Harry’s back!”</p><p>Somehow, he’s already drunk. Liam elbows him, though, and he chuckles. “Hi. Are you guys alright now?”</p><p>“Not really.” Louis takes a step away from Harry and the tall one whines out.</p><p>“Oh. Sorry. If you want to talk about it at all, you know I’m here.”</p><p>“Good to know.” With that, Louis stalks off.</p><p>Harry stands, awkward in the middle of this party for a person who wants nothing to do with him. So he walks off to the side, standing and staring out at the happy party-goers.</p><p>As he’s standing there, minding his own business, a pretty enough werewolf girl approaches him.</p><p>“Hello, handsome,” she tells him, a flirtatious smirk on her face.</p><p>“Sorry,” he tells her. “I’m taken.”</p><p>He’s not, not for the moment apparently, but he’s not making the same mistake twice. And he’s not interested at all in this woman. He has eyes for Louis and Louis alone.</p><p>“You can be taken by me for the night,” she purrs, pawing at his chest.</p><p>He knocks her hand down and steps to the right, away from her. All that does is give her the space to stand next to him.</p><p>“So, how pretty is this girl to keep you off of me?”</p><p>He rolls his eyes, not looking at her. “S’a bit cocky of you to say that. And he’s absolutely breathtaking.”</p><p>The girl chuckles and takes a step away from Harry. “Ah, I see. What’s his name?”</p><p>“Louis…” He sighs as he says the name, staring off dreamily.</p><p>“Ain’t that the name of the birthday boy?” He nods. He’s found Louis and is now staring at him. “He’s very pretty, yeah.”</p><p>She leans back into the wall, staring out at the room with Harry. She smiles when she sees Louis, but her eyes keep moving. She stops on another werewolf, a girl who’s standing with a man twice her size. “Who’s that?”</p><p>She freezes, her smile falling and her gaze moving. “No one.”</p><p>“Is she why you tried to be a homewrecker?”</p><p>The girl gasps and turns to him. “I am not a homewrecker!”</p><p>He turns to her. “You kept flirting even after I told you I was taken!”</p><p>“Well-” She bursts into laughter and he joins in. “I guess you’re right.” She leans back against the wall. “Thank you for not taking me up on that. I just feel- You ever wish someone noticed you in a way you know they never will?”</p><p>He quirks an eyebrow and frowns, shaking his head. “No, I can’t say I have. But before Louis and I started dating, I think I might have made him feel like that.”</p><p>She frowns, nodding. “She’s scared to come out. So we’re a secret and I’m a whore.”</p><p>“Sorry.”</p><p>“It’s fine. It’s just not me. But it’s worth it to keep our secret. I love her. I’d do anything for her.”</p><p>“Sorry.”</p><p>“Yeah, me too. It sucks when the one person you care about is too scared to care about you.”</p><p>“I cheated on Louis.”</p><p>“Wow. That’s awful.”</p><p>“I thought we were on a break! And I was drunk. Besides, I ended up making her my meal anyway.”</p><p>“Hmm. I still think you were wrong to do that.”</p><p>“I know. I do too.”</p><p>They both sigh at the people their eyes are stuck on. “Have you told him?”</p><p>“Yeah. I think he hates me now.” Louis looks over for a split second before looking away.</p><p>“He kind of has every right to.”</p><p>“More than kind of.” He slumps down. “We’ve both been pretty toxic to each other lately. And we never really talk about it.”</p><p>“Well, there’s your problem,” she snorts.</p><p>“Yeah.” He glances over at her. “Sorry I can’t help with your problem.”</p><p>“It’s fine.” She puts her hand out. “I’m Sarah, by the way.”</p><p>“I’m Harry. It’s nice to meet you.” They shake hands. The rest of the night passes rather easily as they talk each other’s ears off.</p><p>-----</p><p>At the end of the night, Harry and Louis get home and sit in the living room together. Harry decides to man up and start a conversation.</p><p>“Louis… I think we need to talk about us.”</p><p>“What about it? We aren’t anything anymore. You ruined any chance of that.”</p><p>“I-” He pauses. “I think we both made mistakes. Mine was much worse, but it’s been a long time since we’ve been happy. That’s what I want to talk about.”</p><p>Louis’ tearing up a little but he holds it in as best he can. “Okay.”</p><p>“What I did was awful and I feel horrible for it. But I thought you didn’t want me anymore.”</p><p>“I told you I loved you and I’d see you at the end of the year!” Louis’ starting to raise his voice, but Harry raises a hand.</p><p>“I’m not trying to argue. I just want to talk. You did say that, but I thought you meant we were on a break until the end of the year. I’m sorry I misunderstood that.”</p><p>“I want to start over.”</p><p>“What?” Harry blinks, confused.</p><p>“I want us to restart this relationship. This time, we’re both interested. This time it’s on my terms. I’m not gonna be some lovesick puppy for you. Not this time, okay? This time, you’re gonna love me just as much as I love you.”</p><p>Harry nods, jumping up and leaning down to hug Louis. Louis swats his arms away, though.</p><p>“We’re not starting out with dating. We’re starting from friends, something we’ve never really been.”</p><p>“Okay.”</p><p>-----</p><p>“I’m going to court you.”</p><p>Louis rolls his eyes, continuing to edit this story instead of responding.</p><p>“No, really. I’m gonna court you.”</p><p>“I don’t think that’s a very friend-like thing.”</p><p>“Well I don’t wanna be your friend anymore. I want more.”</p><p>“Well that’s too bad.”</p><p>“Louis, please let me court you.”</p><p>Louis closes his computer and looks at him. “No.”</p><p>“Why not?”</p><p>“Because we’re trying to be friends first!”</p><p>“But I love you! And I want you to be mine!”</p><p>“How ‘bout this: I’ll let you court me, but I get to set the pace. You don’t get to demand anything of me until I tell you you’re allowed to.”</p><p>Harry nods, a grin spreading across his face.</p><p>-----</p><p>Harry decided to ask Louis out that next Thursday. “Can I take you on a date this weekend?”</p><p>Louis had frowned up at him. “Why?”</p><p>“Because I want to start courting you officially now.”</p><p>He rolled his eyes. “Fine.”</p><p>So now they’re on their first date since Harry got back. Neither has said a word since they got to the movie, but that’s to be expected. They’re not cuddled into each other, either, though, and that bothers Harry. Louis’ so distant from him, even for friends.</p><p>After the movie, they sit in the empty park. It’s dark out, the only light being that of the streetlights.</p><p>“I, uh, have a gift for you.”</p><p>Louis looks up at him through his lashes. It brings him back to the days when Louis was new to immortality. When his whole world revolved around Harry taking care of him and showing him the ropes.</p><p>He pulls out a slim box out of his pocket, large in area but short. He hands it to Louis.</p><p>When he opens it, the sweetest of smiles decorates his lips. He pulls out the tiny ornament, turning it over twice to take it in.</p><p>Instead of using words, he leans up to kiss Harry. Harry accepts the small peck happily, a little more than a little eager to kiss Louis.</p><p>“Thank you, Haz.” He puts the turtle dove ornaments back in the box neatly, carefully. “I’m gonna hang these as soon as we get home. I can’t wait to celebrate Christmas and show all of our friends these.”</p><p>Though it’s a small gift, it’s something he’s wanted for a while. He had mentioned it when they first saw the movie Home Alone 2 and every time since. It’s been a while since they’ve seen it though, which makes it all the more special that Harry remembered it.</p><p>That night, when they get home, they lay together for a few hours, cuddled together. Harry wraps his arms tightly around Louis, refusing to let go this time. He won’t make any of the same mistakes twice.</p><p>“Do you wanna watch a movie?” Harry asks around midnight, never having enjoyed the fake sleep like Louis does. Louis’ new enough to vampirism that he still clings to human tendencies.</p><p>“Uh, sure. What movie were you thinking?”</p><p>“Whatever you wanna watch.”</p><p>They end up cuddling on the couch while watching The Princess Bride. As they watch, Harry stares at him instead of the movie. Watches the way his lips move along with what the characters say. The way he leans in ever so slightly every time something important happens, even though he knows what happens next. He could do this forever, just watch Louis and hold him.</p><p>When they finish the movie, he carries Louis to their bed.</p><p>Louis looks up to him, squinting. “I’m not gonna let you fuck me just because you were nice all night. Even if I really want to, I’m not going to.”</p><p>Harry nods, frowning. “I know.”</p><p>“God, do you have to be so understanding?”</p><p>He frowns even more, now confused. “What?”</p><p>“You not making me change my mind is making me want to change my mind.” He pouts, grumbling. “Can you at least cuddle me? I wanna be held.”</p><p>-----</p><p>When the time comes that it’s actually Louis’ birthday, Harry feels unprepared. They’re still early in this courting, so he can’t get anything big. But he’s always gotten Louis presents that are at the very least very meaningful, if not also expensive. So he’s decided he’s going to give him the next two gifts he had planned.</p><p>He gives them to Louis after Liam and Niall leave, the two having visited to give Louis his gifts. They’re officially dating now.</p><p>When he hands Louis a gift bag, the small boy smiles. He takes the tissue out slowly, finding a picture frame first.</p><p>“It’s a… drawing? Of a person?” Loius seems a little confused and it makes Harry turn bright red.</p><p>“I drew it. It’s supposed to be you. Sorry.”</p><p>Louis gasps, slapping his hand over his mouth. “No! Oh my god, no, I see it now! It’s beautiful!”</p><p>“No, I’m sorry. I know I’m not a very good artist, I should’ve done something else. I just- I know you don’t have any photos of yourself and we only have a few mirrors, so I thought I’d give you this. But it doesn’t even look like you.”</p><p>“No, I love it.” Harry reaches to take it anyway, but he slaps his hand away. “You’re not getting this back. It’s going on the wall now.”</p><p>Harry frowns. He puts the portrait on the table and pulls out what’s left in the bag. It’s a bouncy ball made to look like the earth. Harry rushes to explain this one. “It’s the world. Because I want to give you mine, but it’s hard to give someone themselves.”</p><p>It takes Louis a second, but once he gets what he means, he laughs. “Good one. It’s cute.”</p><p>He pulls Harry into a hug. When he pulls back, it’s only so he can kiss him. It’s a long kiss this time, and Louis ends up inserting his tongue into Harry’s mouth. He moves into Harry’s lap, cupping his face and holding him close.</p><p>He pulls away for a few seconds, only to tell Harry he loves him. Then he dives right back in. He pulls back just a few moments later in order to start undressing them. He starts with their shirts, pecking Harry on the lips every few seconds. Then he starts slipping them out of their pants, a difficult task when the person below you is sitting.</p><p>Once they’re both undressed, he sits on Harry again, sliding down his cock. He hisses and whimpers in pain but powers through, knowing it’s worth it. He fingered himself earlier just to get off, so that’s helping right now. But the lack of lube stings just enough for him.</p><p>He starts sliding up and down, moaning softly and whimpering into Harry’s ear. His movements become more and more labored as they go on, so Harry takes over. He flips them and starts fucking into Louis. He holds his partner down and kisses all over his collarbones, neck, and face.</p><p>Louis finishes first, tightening around Harry and arching his back even further. Harry follows along soon after, coating Louis’ insides with cum.</p><p>He collapses down, avoiding falling on top of Louis but remaining inside of him for another moment or so. When he pulls out, cum follows, but he scoops it up with his fingers, pressing against the hole to hold in the sticky liquid. Louis groans at the feeling, his hole fluttering a little at the new sensation.</p><p>“I’m gonna finger you with my cum as lube until you cum again. You okay with that?” Louis nods, whining for more.</p><p>As Harry fingers him, he’s gentle, kissing around the back of his neck and his upper back. Louis shivers from pleasure as he plays with his prostate. When he senses that his lover is close to his climax, he starts jacking him off to help with his second orgasm.</p><p>When Louis cums, he reaches out for something to hold, clinging at Harry. The vampires lie still together, holding each other until they start feeling uncomfortable. Harry gets up and lets Louis continue to rest while he cleans them up.</p><p>“Birthday sex really is the best, isn’t it?”</p><p>Harry chuckles, lying back down with Louis. “Yeah, I guess it is, love. I’m glad you let us do that.”</p><p>Louis nods, closing his eyes partially.</p><p>-----</p><p>One month later, Liam and Niall announce that they’re moving in together. Louis got super excited for them at first, but his emotions dropped later that day.</p><p>He ends up locking himself in the bathroom, sitting on the closed toilet they’ve never needed to use and holding himself. Harry’s outside for the day, doing something random in the garden.</p><p>So Louis’ alone in the house as he cries. He knows it’s dumb, but he also knows that he’s sad. He wishes Harry would’ve mated him all that time ago, before their year break. Then he wouldn’t feel so reluctant to let Harry back in.</p><p>He doesn’t know what to do at this point. Let Harry love him the way he’s always wanted but knowing that this man cheated on him? Or leave the one person he’s always loved and figuring out life on his own?</p><p>He’s not going to leave. He knows he never could. He loves Harry too much. But it’s gonna take him a little longer to get over what Harry did. He knows he didn’t mean it. He ended up killing the girl, too. And it’s so obvious that he’s sorry.</p><p>But he still needs time to accept Harry’s apology.</p><p>Harry comes in later that day, it takes less than five minutes for him to locate Louis. He immediately knows that he’s gonna have to kick the door to the bathroom in when he enters the house. So he does.</p><p>He finds Louis on the toilet, holding himself and rocking back and forth.</p><p>He launches forward and kneels in front of him, placing his hands gently on his waist. “Hey, Lou… Are you okay?”</p><p>Louis just nods, pulling away ever so slightly.</p><p>“Hey, babe. Why don’t we go lay in bed? Or cuddle on the couch? We can watch a movie if you want. Anything you want.”</p><p>“Just want you to hold me…”</p><p>“Okay, hon. Let’s go lay down then. I’ll carry you.”</p><p>He carries Louis to their bed and places him down. Then he decides that now is the perfect time to give Lou his next gift. So he leaves the room for a few minutes to grab it.</p><p>When he leaves, though, it sends Louis back down his rabbit hole. He curls into himself even more and sobs a little.</p><p>When he gets back, he sees Louis and bends down to hold him, remind him that he’s there. “I’m sorry I left, babe. I wanted to grab you something.”</p><p>Louis continues crying, making grabby hands at Harry and gripping him by the collar. He holds on tight, keeping Harry close to him.</p><p>“Here.” He hands Louis the jewelry box and the boy takes it, leaving one hand gripping Harry’s chest.</p><p>Harry opens the box for him, letting Louis hold him with both arms. The tiny vampire moves his arms, wrapping them around his larger companion. He stares down at the locket Harry’s given him, soft eyes taking in the beautiful piece of jewelry.</p><p>Harry opens it and shows him the message inside. “You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me.” Louis coos a little, tucking his head into Harry’s chest.</p><p>“I love it! It’s so pretty…” He takes it from Harry to inspect it even further. It’s a silver heart that opens to a flat surface and a space to put a picture. In the picture frame portion, there’s a small drawing of a smiley face.</p><p>“You know how awful I am at art, and photos didn’t exist when I was human, so I don’t have any of me.” Neither of them have pictures of themselves. They both died before they became mainstream. There was one photo of Louis that his family took together the year before he turned, but he left that when Harry took him. “So I thought a smiley face would work.”</p><p>Louis pulls him into a hug. “It’s perfect. Thank you. So much. You’re so incredible.”</p><p>Harry holds him after putting the necklace on him. He’s caught off guard when Louis starts kissing his neck, sending chills through his body. Louis continues on, kissing any skin he can reach on his neck. His hands grasp at the bottom of Harry’s shirt, slipping his fingers under a little and starting to pull it up.</p><p>Harry lets him pull the shirt off, feeling how hard the tiny boy is. He’s rocking his hips on Harry’s, grinding down to get him hard.</p><p>Louis walks on his knees to Harry’s hips, laying down over Harry’s legs. He pulls his pants down a little and slips Harry out of his boxers.</p><p>He licks a stripe from the base to the head, swirling his tongue under the foreskin and licking at the slit. Harry moans, bucking his hips up. Louis takes the thrust, letting him fuck his mouth.</p><p>He holds his head by the hair, gripping tightly and forcing Louis’ head up and down. Louis does his best not to gag, letting Harry’s larger than average hands move him how he wants. He flutters his tongue as much as he can. He reaches down and starts jacking himself off, getting himself off with a few strokes. Harry follows along, cumming down his throat as he moans, sending vibrations through Harry’s body.</p><p>Louis rolls over, shimmying up to be face to face with Harry. He turns to face him and kisses his cheek. His dimple pops out as he smiles and Louis kisses it again. Harry smiles wider and pulls him into a hug. They cuddle on the bed for a few hours, having cleaned themselves up before truly settling down.</p><p>-----</p><p>“I’m so happy for you, Ni! You guys seem so happy,” Louis tells him, having just got to the housewarming party.</p><p>“Yeah, I really like Liam. You guys are a cute couple,” Harry says from next to him. They enter past Niall, who’s smiling widely and thanking them.</p><p>When Louis gets in, he goes over and hangs out with Niall and his friends. Harry goes over to the girl he met the last time they came over. She happens to also be standing with Liam, so it works out for him.</p><p>When he gets there, he turns to Liam first. “Did you put it in the garage?”</p><p>Liam nods. Sarah looks back and forth between them, shrugging and leaning back. “Yeah, Niall promised not to tell. But he got really squeally, so you never know. You know how long Louis’ wanted that car.”</p><p>“Since they first made it. I had to convince him to take an Uber, so I think he knows something’s up.”</p><p>Sarah gets what’s going on and smiles. “You got him a car?!”</p><p>“Shh!” Both Liam and Harry say in sync.</p><p>“I’m courting him. This is the second to last gift, so it’s gotta be big.”</p><p>She smiles, going slightly heart eyed. “That’s awesome. I’m so happy for you!”</p><p>“How are you and that girl?”</p><p>Liam tilts his head a little. “What girl?”</p><p>Sarah turns red. “No one. She’s no one. Just a friend that I, um, was arguing with.”</p><p>Liam connects the dots anyway, grinning widely. He whispers out his sentence, respecting Sarah’s wanting to keep this quiet. “You like Bethanie, don’t you?”</p><p>When her blush gets deeper, he grins wider.</p><p>“That’s great!”</p><p>“That’s her name? Bethanie?” Harry asks.</p><p>She nods. “Yeah. But let’s get back to you guys. You just moved in with your boyfriend and you’re gonna get- do vampires get mated or married or what?”</p><p>Harry chuckles. “We get mated. We could also get married. Whatever Louis wants.”</p><p>She coos. Liam excuses himself to go greet people, leaving Harry and Sarah alone.</p><p>He turns to her. “Have you tried telling her you want to come out?”</p><p>She frowns. “Well, no. But I’d rather be sad with a secret girlfriend than sad without a girlfriend.”</p><p>“How do you know she’d leave you?”</p><p>“She’s not ready to come out. If I pressure her too much, she’s sure to run away. Who wants to be with someone who won’t stop badgering them?”</p><p>Harry grimaces. He felt that way about Louis for a little while, but looking back he was in the wrong. He had been leading Louis on for two centuries only to cheat on him. But now he’s making it right. He won’t do that again. He loves him too much. He sees where he went wrong.</p><p>“And anyways, I’d wait however long she wants me to. I love her and I know she loves me. That’s enough.”</p><p>“But it won’t always be enough. And if you wait too long to say anything, she’ll think it’s okay. But it isn’t. You need to be open with your feelings. If you don’t, it’ll hurt more in the future if she does reject you.”</p><p>“I-” She freezes. “Hey, Beth. How are you?”</p><p>Bethanie is standing next to Harry now, a thoughtful look on her face. “Hi. Is everything okay? Who’s gonna reject you?”</p><p>“No one. Nothing. Everything’s fine.”</p><p>Harry sighs, taking the opportunity to walk away. He finds Louis and walks up behind him, wrapping his arm around him. Louis startles a little, settling into his touch as soon as he knows that it’s Harry.</p><p>The party passes by in a flash, the two not leaving each other’s sides the entire time. They’re sat in each other’s laps on the couch by the end of the night. When most of the other guests have left, that’s when Harry decides to bring him to the gift.</p><p>“Let’s say goodbye. It’s time to go.”</p><p>“But-” Harry gives him a look. “Okay.”</p><p>They tell Liam and Niall goodbye, but when Harry approaches Sarah, Louis gets confused.</p><p>“Why are we over here?” he asks.</p><p>“This is Sarah. She and I met at your birthday party. She’s really nice.”</p><p>“No, I mean-”</p><p>“Hi!” She waves and smiles. “Are you guys leaving?”</p><p>“Yeah. It was nice seeing you again.” Harry pulls her into a hug.</p><p>Louis stands next to them, shuffling back and forth. Sarah smiles at him, hugging him once she’s done saying goodbye to Harry.</p><p>“It was nice to meet you, Louis.” She whispers something into Harry’s ear and he gets grumbly, waiting for his boyfriend to be done with this woman.</p><p>When Harry is, he walks with Louis out to the front of the house. Just as he’s about to lead him to the garage, Louis turns to get upset with him.</p><p>“You know she’s the pack slut right? She tries to sleep around with everyone. I bet she’d have no problem seducing a taken man! And we both already know that you have no problem sleeping around,” he whisper shouts.</p><p>Harry gawks. “You know I feel horrible about that! I would never do that again. And anyways, she’s not a threat to you. I’m not into her and she’s not into me.”</p><p>“How do you know that?!”</p><p>Sarah peeks out the door. When she sees the couple arguing, she takes a step out.</p><p>“Because I’m in love with you and she told me she respects that!”</p><p>“How do you know she wasn’t just saying that? Huh? Just so she can get in your pants.”</p><p>“Louis-”</p><p>“You hurt me so much. This relationship just doesn’t seem to work. At all. Maybe we should call it quits.”</p><p>“I’m not ever going to leave you. I love you so damn much.” Harry pulls him into a hug. “We just need to learn to communicate better. If we need to, we can get a therapist or something like that.”</p><p>“Maybe Liam could help us.”</p><p>“Yeah.”</p><p>“But please- I don’t want you around that girl. I have no way of being certain that you aren’t going to cheat.”</p><p>“I’m a lesbian.” The two men look up at Sarah on the steps, startled by her sudden statement. “I’m not into Harry at all. It’s awful that he cheated on you and he knows that. He literally won’t shut up about you. And I’m a lesbian. I’ve never really said that to anyone. I am a lesbian. I’m into girls. I don’t ever want to be with a man.”</p><p>“Then why sleep around like you do?” Louis asks.</p><p>“Because love’s worth the pain.”</p><p>Louis doesn’t ask any more questions. Sarah exits the building completely, teary eyed as she walks to her car.</p><p>“Have you already ordered the Uber?” Harry shakes his head. “Let’s go for a walk. We need to really talk for a little while, before we go home.”</p><p>Harry agrees, following the short vampire. They start a walk around the block, holding hands. “Where would you like to start?”</p><p>“I want you to start with how the whole sleeping with that other woman happened.”</p><p>He nods. “Okay. Um, she was just this random woman. She seemed interested and I was thirsty. I took her back to my hotel and fucked her before draining her. I thought you hated me. I thought we weren’t together and that you didn’t want me anymore. I thought when you said you loved me at the end of the call, you meant as a friend. Everything just felt so… so off. I couldn’t even get off that night. I barely got hard, only when I thought about how good you feel. As soon as I looked at her, I knew it was better for me to just kill her as quickly as possible.”</p><p>“Wait- You didn’t actually sleep with her?”</p><p>“I mean… Not really. But I tried to and that’s what counts. I’m so sorry Lou. I’m so sorry I’m such a terrible partner!” Louis pulls him into a hug, trying to console him. “I am though! Even before this, I was letting my fear control how much I was willing to give you! You’ve wanted to get mated for so long and I just kept making you wait. That must’ve been awful!”</p><p>“Haz, you didn’t owe me anything. I shouldn’t have pressured you so much. I know you’re not ready to mate yet. It’s nice that you want to court me now and all that, but we both know that the only thing that’ll come of it is that you’ll finally give me a solid time frame. Instead of me hoping it’ll only be 100 years, I’ll know that I have to wait 1,000 years. Which is better than nothing, I guess.” He shrugs and continues walking, passing Harry, who pauses.</p><p>Harry stands there, making a split-second decision. He gets down on one knee and pulls out the velvety black box he’s kept in his pocket for days now. It means he’ll have to switch around the final two gifts. But if that’s what will make Louis calm down, he’s okay with that.</p><p>“Louis!” He turns, finally noticing that Harry’s not next to him. When he realizes why he’s not there, his eyes go wide and his mouth drops.</p><p>“Oh, Harry.” He walks back over, cupping his hands over his mouth.</p><p>“Louis, I am not going to make you wait a thousand years for me. Spending a year without you made me realize exactly how important to me you are. I had to wait a year to see you again and that was absolute hell. I’m sorry I ever made you wait so long for any solid promises. And hearing Sarah’s story makes me feel even worse.”</p><p>“You… You’re gonna-”</p><p>He opens the box, revealing a golden band. “Louis, I never want you to feel like that again. If you’ll accept, I would love to make you my husband and mate before the end of this year. Will you marry me?”</p><p>“Yes, yes, oh my god, yes. I want that so bad.” He’s crying, smiling widely.</p><p>Harry stands up and puts the ring on Louis’ finger. They hug and kiss, unable to stop grinning.</p><p>“I have one more gift, back at Niall and Liam’s.”</p><p>Louis follows Harry back to the house, not bothering to voice his confusion. When they get back to the house and Harry goes to the garage, he still holds his questions in. He’s pretty sure he knows what the gift will be now, but he doesn’t want to be told he’s wrong.</p><p>“So, you’ve wanted this car for a while. I thought it would be a good idea to finally get you this as a courting gift. Obviously, it was supposed to come before the ring, but we’ll make due.” He chuckles a little, guiding Louis to his new car.</p><p>It’s a Chevrolet Corvette, a car Louis’ been interested in since it first came out. It’s a newer model, but it’s a good reminder to him why he’s with the right person. He listens and remembers the things he says. Louis barely ever talks about cars or anything like that, and yet it stuck out to Harry that he’d want that.</p><p>“Do you wanna drive home?”</p><p>Louis smirks. “I think you should drive.”</p><p>Harry quirks his head a little. “Why? Don’t you want to drive your new car?”</p><p>“It’d be hard to finger myself open while driving. Plus, I can only suck you off on the way home if I’m not driving.”</p><p>Harry feels himself starting to get hard, nodding and moving to the car mechanically. Louis follows, bouncing over with a smile. They both get in the car and start driving away.</p><p>As the car begins rolling, Louis slips his pants past his ass, kneeling on his seat and not buckling. He leans over to pull Harry out. He gets his cock out and starts sucking at the head. He presses one finger into himself as he starts bobbing up and down. He starts deepthroating as he gets a second finger in himself.</p><p>The burn begins feeling good as he finds his prostate. The choking noises he’s making drives Harry crazy, the moans making his entire body tingle. He has to physically force himself to focus on the road. He bites his tongue and when that stops working he bites his lip. When he finds that that does nothing, he bites his cheek. Hard.</p><p>Louis pulls off with a pop to breathe and adds a third finger. He rests his head on Harry’s thigh. Once he’s gathered his breath, he leans back in, but not before moaning at the pressure on his prostate. He sucks on Harry’s balls this time, mouthing up and down the shaft every few seconds.</p><p>Harry grips the wheel with white knuckles, pulling into their driveway and pulling Louis’ head off. He moves to the back, through the slot between the seats. Louis follows, getting on his lap in the back.</p><p>Harry flips them over, pressing him into the seat. He pulls his pants all the way off and turns Louis onto his stomach.</p><p>He rubs a hand over the curve of his ass, pulling the cheeks apart and sliding his cock in. He pushes against the hole, not fully thrusting in yet. Louis whines, begging him to push in.</p><p>When he finally does enter him, he groans out. Louis whimpers in pleasure, pressing back against him. He holds Louis’ head down, pressing hard against it. He starts fucking into the body below him, using Louis to achieve his orgasm. Louis feels the way he holds the back of his head and one of his hips, the way he can’t move in his arms. With that feeling of being overpowered hitting him, his orgasm consumes him.</p><p>He spazzes a bit, his body shaking from the powerful feeling. He gets incredibly tight around Harry and he holds him up to his body. Harry cums along with him, filling him to the brim.</p><p>They both collapse in the car. Harry comes to his senses quickly, though, picking them up and speeding them into the house. He pulls a pair of boxers on and rushes back to the car to clean it.</p><p>-----</p><p>Harry’s panicking. Louis is just about to start walking down that aisle and all he can do is stand and wait for him like a fool. He wants to go check on him, reassure him that everything will be alright.</p><p>But all he’s allowed to do is stand and wait for his lovely groom to be. Sarah’s standing next to him, his best woman. Liam is beside her, his only other groomsmen. On Louis’ side, Niall and a few other friends of Louis are going to stand. Harry learned their names at some point, but it’s been too long since they introduced themselves for him to admit he can’t remember them. It might also be the anxiety clearing his head. Who knows?</p><p>Everything shuts off in his mind the moment Louis enters the backyard though. None of that worry of him running bothers him anymore. He looks stunning in his suit, every curve on his body outlined perfectly. His eyes shine, popping with the navy blue bringing them out. Harry feels like the luckiest man in the world as he comes to stand in front of him.</p><p>The wedding is taking place under a tent, the light almost entirely blocked out for the two vampire’s protection. Harry can’t help but feel grateful for the lighting from the fairy lights on his love’s cheekbones. He looks otherworldly.</p><p>When they finish the reception, they go to the head table. Harry and Louis sit in the middle, next to each other. The rest of their guests are seated wherever they want at the tables around the room.</p><p>It’s almost dusk, so they’re able to sit in the open area of the yard. The two newlyweds hold hands under the table, smiling out at the crowd while they lean into each other.</p><p>As everyone eats normal food, Louis and Harry dive into blood packs. Sarah’s girlfriend, Bethanie, works as a phlebotomist for the pack. So now they have access to human blood without killing instead of only animals'.</p><p>Bethanie and Sarah are sitting together, holding hands. After a long talk, Bethanie agreed that it was time for them to come out together. Harry was elated when Sarah said she’d be coming with a plus one and it would be Bethanie.</p><p>Louis was happy for them, too, having grown to like Sarah over the months of planning for this day. She helped out a lot. Louis realized over that time that the two of them had a lot in common.</p><p>Louis leans into Harry even more now that they’ve finished eating. “I love you so much.”</p><p>He kisses the top of his head. “I love you too. I’m sorry I put this off for so long.”</p><p>“I’m happy that this happened at all.”</p><p>-----</p><p>That night, when all of the guests leave and Harry and Louis are able to go inside, Harry carries him across the threshold. Louis giggles, holding onto his collar for support. They get to their bedroom and Harry drops him to the bed gently.</p><p>He stands at the edge of the bed, pulling his clothes off. He starts with his tie, taking his time as he undresses. Louis watches him, his eyes slowly glazing over as his husband gets undressed. He works on the buttons of his shirt, revealing the tattoos Louis loves. He decides in that moment that he’s going to be the dominant one tonight.</p><p>He springs out of the bed at a speed only a vampire could possess. He pushes Harry down, onto the bed, sprawling him out. Harry smirks, having hoped for something like this.</p><p>Louis makes quick work of tying him up, his wrists now attached to the headboard. He’s in a sitting up position, still smiling at Louis. Despite the positioning, he’s in charge.</p><p>Louis undresses himself, removing his clothing much more frantically than Harry did. Once he’s gotten his wardrobe onto the floor, he pulls Harry’s pants and underwear off in one slide. He decides he’s not going to prep himself tonight.</p><p>So he puts a condom on Harry and lubes him up. Then he sits in his lap, facing away from Harry. He reaches behind himself and brings his cock to his hole. He presses down, his hole fluttering at the sensation.</p><p>After three long, excruciating minutes, he finally gets Harry inside him, passing his tight muscle with a little bit of work. He gets as far down as he can in their position and sits for a minute. Once he’s adjusted, he starts rocking back and forth, hitting his prostate with every move.</p><p>Harry strains against the ties, wanting to hold Louis’ hips. He holds himself back, though, knowing Louis wants to be in control tonight. He does thrust his hips up. As he rides Harry, he clings to the sheets below him, moving faster and faster. He runs out of energy quickly, needing to take breaks every few bounces.</p><p>The green-eyed man notices this and rips out of his restraints. He thrusts into Louis, holding his hips as he rolls them over. He starts slamming into Louis, unrelenting. Louis shudders underneath him, arching his back and stretching out. As he cums, it covers the bedding below him and he constricts around Harry.</p><p>“Turn me over, we need to mate- need to be able to bite you…”</p><p>He listens, flipping him over. The two lock eyes before Harry leans down to his neck. He bites down, clamping his jaw over the skin and breaking it. Louis goes next, breaking the skin on Harry’s neck the same way.</p><p>Harry fills the condom, slamming his hips into Louis and grinding their hips together as he cums. They kiss, sharing their blood to each other. It finalizes the bond, connecting them forever.</p><p>“I love you so much, Louis.”</p><p>“I love you, too.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>My tumblr is larrrystlinson, same as on here. Feel free to send me any prompts you have on there or in the comments there.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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